Recording History - Page 9

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The Weezer recording history: Page 9

Recording History
Page 8
(Late 1994 - Aug. 1996)
Page 9
(Aug. 1996 - Aug. 1997)
Page 10
(Sept. 1997 - Winter 1999)
All Recording History pages
Page 1
(1987 - Feb. 1991)
Page 2
(Late 1990 - Jan. 1992)
Page 3
(Feb. 1992 - Sept. 1992)
Page 4
(Sept. 1992 - Aug. 1993)
Page 5
(Aug. 1993 - Spring 1994)
Page 6
(Late Spring 1994 - Dec. 1994)
Page 7
(Late 1994 - Early 1995)
Page 8
(Late 1994 - Aug. 1996)
Page 9
(Aug. 1996 - Aug. 1997)
Page 10
(Sept. 1997 - Winter 1999)
Page 11
(Spring 1999 - Nov. 1999)
Page 12
(Jan. 2000 - Dec. 2000)
Page 13
(Dec. 2000 - Feb. 2002)
Page 14
(March 2002 - Nov. 2003)
Page 15
(Dec. 2003 - April 2005)

Contents

Live show bootleg tape, 8/17/1996: Koln/Cologne, Germany : Bizarre Festival

an excellent quality bootleg, both in audio and video formats, because the show was broadcast live to German radio, and later that night there was also a video re-broadcast on German TV. The TV and Radio stations were one and the same, "Westdeutscher Rundfunk", in short "WDR", a regional station that nonetheless reaches millions of people. WDR is owned by the state, so the quality was superb, on radio and on tv.

note: this set +2 tracks from the Japan show on 10/22 (below) became the "Good Life" CD bootleg

Live show bootleg tape, 8/18/96: St Malo, France : "La route du Rock" Festival

taped off the mixing board

(tracklist unavailable)

Live show bootleg tape, 8/23/96:Reading, England : Reading Festival

note: broadcast live on the radio, good quality

Radio station performance, ?/?/96 Melbourne, Australia: Triple R radio - acoustic

"triple r" radio show acoustic set , unknown date, tracklist, and location 1996 (please email karl if you know the date of this one)

Live show bootleg tape, 10/19/96: Osaka, Japan : Club Quattro

(tracklist unavailable)

Live show bootleg tape, 10/22/96: Toyko, Japan : Liquid Room

note: These comprise the last 2 songs on the "Good Life!" Bootleg CD. high quality recording.

Radio station performance, 10/27/96 Los Angeles: Modern Rock Live

I beleive this is just Matt and Pat.... consists of live interviews, call ins, and possibly some acoustic songs(?) ...or probably just some impromptu goofiness with a casio keyboard...

(This is likely the time of infamous "crack baby" incident)

professional quality master tape exists, as well as copies taped off the radio by fans

Live show bootleg tape, 11/2/96: San Francisco, California : The Fillmore

note, quality rather poor, taped from the audience by someone who was not in a very good spot!

Live show bootleg tape, 11/6/96: Seattle(?), Washington : Shorecrest High School

pro quality audio, acoustic performance

note: a professional video tape exists, it is edited and features opening shots of the kids pouring into the gymnasium/arena . This exists as a geffen promotional tape, but it is unclear what its purpose was or if it was ever distributed anywhere. ""Pink Triangle"" from this video (with its audio synced and enhanced from the audio recording) was included on the Weezer DVD.

Live show bootleg tape, 11/6/96: Seattle, Washington : DV8

note: taped off the mixing board, high quality audio

also note, this is later the same day of the high school show above

Live show bootleg tape, 11/7/96: Vancouver, British Columbia : Hellenic Hall

note: poor quality audience recording

11/9/96: "the good life" video shoot

all too brief home movie of the day's action, shot by karl. Fragments were used in the weezer DVD as parts of the "Good Life B-Roll" segment.

Live show bootleg tape, 11/16/96: Chicago, IL - The Riviera

  1. "Tired of Sex"
  2. "Getchoo"
  3. "My Name Is Jonas"
  4. "Pink Triangle"
  5. "No One Else"
  6. "No Other One"
  7. "Why Bother?"
  8. "In the Garage"
  9. "You Gave Your Love to Me Softly"
  10. "Falling For You"
  11. "Say It Ain't So"
  12. "The Good Life"
  13. "Undone - The Sweater Song"
  14. "Butterfly"
  15. "Across the Sea"
  16. "El Scorcho"
  17. "Buddy Holly"
  18. Surfwax America

Live show bootleg tape, 11/17/96: Cincinnati, Ohio : Bogarts

(tracklist and quality unknown)

Radio station performance, 11/22/96 Toronto, Canada: The Edge 102.1- acoustic

Live performance on TV, 11/22/96 - Much Music, Toronto, Canada

included interviews

note: was re-broadcast on 3/13/97, as part of a "Muchmusic Spotlight" where they showcase a band by presenting the audience with the music videos that have been produced to date, accompanied by specific interviews - in this case, from 11/22/96.

note 2: many fans have noted that audible in the broadcast of this show, the band can be heard in the background rehearsing as the VJ person babbles. They are heard running through "Devotion" acoustically, and there is much speculation that they actually performed the song but that it was somehow never aired. Extensive reaserch has confirmed that the broadcast was complete as shown, and that no other footage exists - the band did not perform it for the cameras, so there is no recording besides what is heard in the background. Either they ran out of time or decided not to play that one at the last minute. No one has ever come forth who witnessed the show and claimed to see them performing anything aside from what was shown on TV.

Live show bootleg tape, 11/25/96: Rochester, NY: Harro East

note : good sounding audience tape

Live show bootleg tape, 11/26/96: Boston, MA : The Avalon

note : good sounding audience tape

Live show bootleg tape, 12/08/96: West Palm Beach, FL - In-store Acoustic

  1. "Undone - The Sweater Song"
  2. "No One Else"
  3. "The Good Life"
  4. "Pink Triangle"
  5. "El Scorcho"
  6. "Buddy Holly"

audience recording. store name unknown.

Live show bootleg tape, 12/15/96: New Orleans, LA - House of Blues

  1. "Tired of Sex"
  2. "Getchoo"
  3. "My Name Is Jonas"
  4. "Pink Triangle"
  5. "No One Else"
  6. "No Other One"
  7. "Why Bother?"
  8. "In the Garage"
  9. "You Gave Your Love to Me Softly"
  10. "Falling For You"
  11. "Say It Ain't So"
  12. "The Good Life"
  13. "Undone - The Sweater Song"
  14. "Butterfly"
  15. "Across the Sea"
  16. "El Scorcho"
  17. "Buddy Holly"
  18. "Surf Wax America"

audience recording.

Live show bootleg tape, 12/18/96: Dallas, TX : Deep Ellum

taped off the mixing board, nice quality

1996-1999 Rivers' Songwriting Sketch Tapes

Dating from Rivers' time in Boston, he recorded a series of cassettes of his private songwriting sessions, the probable purpose was to review the tapes later and pull out better ideas for further development. As of 2000, there were approximately 10-20 of these tapes in existence, though their present locations and contents are unknown. Beyond that time period, Rivers used digital handheld recorders for this function, and later still recorded raw ideas directly into a laptop.

late 1996 During the tour with Ash :

Somehow Tim Wheeler of Ash taped Brian Bell's phone message to him at a hotel in LA, Ash later put this on their fanclub-only "Barbie Record" as "Devils Haircut". Brian was referring Tim to various barbers that he was partial to in LA...I know, very weird....

Live show bootleg tape, 1/21/97: Louisville, KY : The Brewery

note : fair sounding audience tape

more rentals recordings in london feb 1997- late spring 1997

Matt played me rough mixes of this stuff when the band re-conviened in May in the USA. There were several songs that I recall never made it to "7 More Minutes", such as "The Great Train Robbery". Unfortunately, I have no copies nor notes regarding this material, except i am quite sure that a number of the mixes i heard were in fact early versions of tracks that did make it to the album.

Spring 1997 Space Twins cd demo

About 4 or 5 songs put onto a small number of cd-r's. I cant recall what was on this disc. I do recall saxophones and other wild instumentation. Brian worked on this in the spring, in LA

Spring 1997 - Boston, MA - Pink Triangle single session.

Weezer wasn't sure if they were going to get Matt back from his extensive U.K. Rentals sessions in time to play the summer tour with No Doubt, plus there was a new single coming out and it wasn't radio-ready.

The problem was that Geffen Records and the bands management felt strongly that if "Pink Triangle" was going to get radio play, it needed a serious cleaning up. Rivers had switched from holding firm to being flexible about what was necessary to get a Pinkerton song on the radio, after the fair-at-best national performance of "The Good Life" back in the winter. Additionally, there were no b-sides ready to go for the international retail single, With "I Swear It's True" and "Getting Up and Leaving" never having been finished the previous summer during the L.A. Pinkerton sessions.

Rivers was still in Harvard doing his Spring semester, but scheduled a session at Fort Apache for his spring break to get the new single ready for the summer tour. In the absence of Matt, 2 bass players were auditioned, Scott Riebling (formerly of Letters To Cleo) and another guy who no one can recall. Scott got the job.

Scott Riebling comments, 2005:
"Actually, there were a few levels of auditions. First there was a cattle call type audition that was held during the daytime at one of boston's Lansdowne street clubs, Axis. I would guess that there were at least 20 bass players there, and I was the first to play. This was the start of what ended up being the most amazing few weeks of my life. Back then, and even to this day, if anyone asks me who my favorite bands of all time are I will retort, the Beatles, Zeppelin, and Weezer. Damn, was I nervous, but totally in heaven. I will never forget the feeling of the guys kicking in with "Tired of Sex", at that time my favorite weezer song, my favorite (still together) rock band with ME on bass!! Holy sh*t. I played a few more songs, then Rivers asked if I had a fender bass, and if I could bring it to the next phase of auditions. I thought my '71 gibson les paul signature bass was pretty cool, certainly quite rare, but it didn't have that characteristic weezer sound.

The next phase of auditions was held at a Boston recording studio called New Alliance. At this point the 20 or so bass players had been narrowed down to five, and we were asked to pick a different set of tunes to play than we had auditioned with the first time.

The last phase of the audition was held at Fort Apache studios, where "Pink Triangle" would ultimately be completed. Two bass players were invited to this session/audition, me and Mikey Welsh (I think??????) We were both asked to record our version of the bass for "Pink Triangle" on the original 24 track tape. Mikey (I thought????) went first, and I was told he took about 45 minutes. I went second, took about 10 minutes, then I was cheerfully told by Rivers that I got the gig!"

On the task of shaping "Pink Triangle" up, Scott re-cut the bassline, making it cleaner and tighter. Rivers did some additional subtle work, and the track was sent to Miami, to be re-mixed by Tom Lord-Alge.

Scott Riebling: "Actually, the entire song was scrapped except for the bells, the vocals, and the drums. All the guitars, bass, and keys for this track were totally recut. I remember how amazing Rivers was as a producer, totally helping guide me to a much better bass line than [either] Matt or I had originally come up with. He brought in this totally ancient EML synthesizer [the Electrocomp 101] that used 1/4 inch patch cables to route the sounds within the instrument. This is a really difficult synth to tune, and get a good sound out of, but the tone rivers got out of it was bigger than a freight train."

Then the b-sides were tackled. Though they were essentially done and needed only a mix, Scott was asked to re-cut the bass on both, as it was decided that the summer '96 Matt bass work was rushed and incomplete. Rivers then decided to make some lyric changes to "Getting Up and Leaving", and worked on vocals for both the songs for some time. It's not known exactly what happened at this point, but the final result was that the 2 songs were never given a final mix, and to date remain in rough mix form, unreleased.

Scott Riebling: "Actually, both of these songs were totally recut, drums and all. I wasn't even aware that there were versions of these songs that had been recorded before those Fort Apache/"Pink Triangle" dates."

In the end, Matt indeed returned in time to start the tour, and the "Pink Triangle" single was given a radio only promo release (backed with the acoustic "Pink Triangle" version from the fall '96 Shorecrest High show). The word from Geffen was that the single would be gauged at radio to determine if it had the strength to get a retail release and a video, but the odds were against the 'lesbian' themed song, and releasing it as a promo single only belied Geffen's lack of confidence in the song to do well.

Scott Riebling: "I think there were two more songs that we worked on other than "I swear It's True", and "Getting Up and leaving.""

The identities and fates of these other 2 unknown recordings remain a mystery in 2011.

Radio station performance: 5/21/97 Seattle, WA: KNDD 107.7 The End

Acoustic set , the "7:30 spotlight"

Live show bootleg tape, 5/30/97: Mountain View, CA : Shoreline Amphitheater

note, fair quality audience tape

Note there is also a pro quality vhs video tape of this show.

Radio Station performance, 6/5/97: X96 Salt Lake City

This recording later appeared on the X96 benefit CD "X96 More Cheap Live".

Live show video tape, 6/10/97: kansas city, MO : Sandstone Amphitheater

tracklist unknown. pro quality video.

Radio station performance: 6/20/97 "Sonic Session" Y-100 Philadelphia PA

Note: Tim "Speed" Levitch , Matts weird buddy, guest vocals on "Undone" (rent the movie The Cruise for more info on that dude)

Audio bootlegs exist containing the whole thing.

There are 2 different Y-100 compilation CD'S that feature songs from this. One has "Undone", the other has "The Good Life"

The y100 sonic session was not broadcast live. The sonic sessions are always aired the following sunday morning. An interesting side note is that 4 weeks after the sonic session aired on the radio, a local WB-owned station WPHL 17 aired the video version which showed "Undone", "The Good Life", "Pink Triangle", and "El Scorcho", as well as interviews of the fans by a local dj. "Undone" from this video version (featuring the avant-weird poetry raps of Tim Levitch) appeared on the Weezer DVD.

Live show audio bootleg, 6/28/97: Cuyahoga Falls, OH - Blossom Music Center

  1. Intro
  2. "My Name Is Jonas"
  3. "Getchoo"
  4. "No One Else"
  5. "The Good Life"
  6. "Say It Ain't So"
  7. "Why Bother?"
  8. "Undone - The Sweater Song"
  9. "Pink Triangle"
  10. "The Dukes of Hazzard" Theme Song
  11. "Buddy Holly"
  12. "El Scorcho"
  13. "Surf Wax America"

Live show bootleg tape, 7/9/97: Salt Lake City, UT : Club Dv8

note: fairly poor sounding audience tape

Live show bootleg tape, 7/29/97: Osaka, Japan : Club Quattro

note: decent quality audience recording

Live performance Videotaped for MTV, 8/15/97 - Los Angeles CA, The Palace

The memorial show for Mykel, Carli and Trysta was taped nearly in full by MTV, although only small parts were shown during "the week in rock", Additionally, MTV taped 3 full length interviews with Matt and Rivers, Pat and Karl, the Allan family, and various weezer fans, as well as most of opener That Dog's performance.

(tracklist coming)